H31N0US:I've been scratching my head at the recent market rally, and to be honest, I'm just not buying it.

You not still trying to use the stock market as an economic indicator are you? When day traders came on the scene in the late 90s it lost damn near all its usefulness. The only thing you could say was that it was an indicator of the mood of the nation. Now with micro traders and other just trying to play the curve it has lost that as well.

H31N0US:Not really, butareyou implying that the current prices are driven by pure speculation on the part of day traders etc?

yes. As long as the Fed is pumping in money the speculators have no reason to think the bottom will fall out. Remember the day that Yellen took over? Was it 390ish drop? The next day she hinted that the QE would continue and the good times returned. Other than that one thing could you point to another factor that would have cause that drop? I couldn't.